Csonka’s NXT TV Review 12.20.17

Csonka’s NXT TV Review 12.20.17

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– NXT Tag Team Title Match: Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly defeated Sanity @ 13:02 via pin to become the new tag team champions [***]
– NXT Title Contender’s Match: Lars Sullivan defeated Roderick Strong @ 5:47 via pin [***]
– WWE UK Title Match: Champion Pete Dunne defeated Tyler Bate @ 22:55 via pin [****½]

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– Follow all of my reviews at this link.

– I ranked the Raw women’s division from worst to first at this link.
– I ranked the Smackdown women’s division from worst to first at this link.
– I wrote about the winners in the battle for the Broken Universe at this link.
– I wrote about the top 10 female NXT stars at this link.

NXT Tag Team Title Match: Champions Sanity (Young & Dain) vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly: Wolfe is not “medically cleared” from WarGames, so Young & Dain are representing Sanity tonight. Fish and Dain begin. Nope, Fish quickly tags out and O’Reilly tags in, but Dain backs him off right away. Fish tags in, lays in strikes but Dain just absorbs them. Dain then fights both off, sending them to the floor. O’Reilly back in, Dain cuts him off and tags in EY; double teams follow and EY covers for 2. O’Reilly bails to the floor, EY chases and brings him back in, hitting a shoulder block. Rights follow, but Fish trips him up on the apron. Post break, and Fish & O’Reilly have EY isolated in their corner, and they take the heat, working quick tags. They ground EY, working the knee. Knee strikes by Fish follow, the double team suplex follows for 2. EY tries to fire back, but O’Reilly trips him up and again covers for 2. He starts working the arm, grounding EY again. O’Reilly then delivers knee strikes, and sets EY up top. EY eats a knee strike as he flies in, but hits a desperation neck breaker. Fish tags in, attacks Dain, which pisses him off, but allows then to double team EY. More quick tags follow; EY tosses O’Reilly to the floor and then tosses Fish. Hot tag to the big lad! He runs wild, tossing bodies around and hitting clotheslines. Corner splashes follow. The shotgun dropkick/senton combo follows and the Michinoku driver gets 2. It breaks down, Sanity looks for double teams but Fish low bridges Dain to the floor. EY hits O’Reilly with a powerbomb, but Adam Cole crotches EY as he went up top. O’Reilly hits axe and smash for 2. Nikki Cross arrives and attacks Cole! Refs save Cole and take her away. EY fights both men off, and hits the neck breaker for 2. Dain gets posted by Cole, but ET hits him with a suicide dive. Back in and total elimination finishes EY and we have new champions. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly defeated Sanity @ 13:02 via pin to become the new tag team champions [***] This was a good tag match, and putting the titles on Fish & O’Reilly feels like the right move.

– We get a Roderick Strong video package.

– We get a Shayna Baszler video package.

– Heavy Machinery find Tino’s car and try to move it. This leads to an argument with Moss & Tino, likely setting up a future tag match.

– We get highlights of Riott vs. Deville from two weeks ago. Deville is questioned about the match, and says next week, she faces Ember Moon and will beat her. Deville gets her title shot next week.

#Absolution's @SonyaDevilleWWE vows to defeat @WWENXT #WomensChampion @WWEEmberMoon NEXT WEEK! #WWENXT pic.twitter.com/mEgX3SGikf

— WWE (@WWE) December 21, 2017

– We get a Lars Sullivan video package.

NXT Title Contender’s Match: Lars Sullivan vs. Roderick Strong: Strong rushes him and attacks with strikes and chops. Strong keeps the pace quick, continuing to lay in strikes, but Lars cuts him off with a vicious lariat. He follows with knee strikes, and then follows by attacking the lower back. The corner clothesline follows, and Lars then tosses Strong across the ring like a sack of shit. Strong tries to fire up, but runs into a bear hug. Strong starts to fade, but boxes the ears and hits a jawbreaker. The dropkick follows, and then kicks. Strong sidesteps Lars, and lays in a series of forearms, but Lars cuts him off with a clothesline. Lars up top, Strong follows him up and hits a big superplex, but Lars kicks out at 1. Strong knows he’s fucked. Lara mows him down with a lariat, but Strong manages an Angle slam for 2. The knee strike follows, but Lars hits the pop up powerslam and finishes him with the freak accident. Lars Sullivan defeated Roderick Strong @ 5:47 via pin [***] This was a good, hard-hitting sprint, similar in tone and structure to the Takeover match with Ohno. Strong is great fighting from the bottom and sold everything Lars did like death.

– Lars Sullivan moves on to face Black, Gargano, and Dain next week for a shot at the NXT title.

The field is set for NEXT WEEK. Who will be the next #1 Contender for @AndradeCienWWE's @WWENXT Championship?@KillianDain @WWEAleister @JohnnyGargano @LarsSWWE #WWENXT pic.twitter.com/mLH6stdbaj

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) December 21, 2017

– We get street talk with the Street Profits.

WWE UK Title Match: Champion Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate: This is their third WWE meeting this year, I went ****½ and ***** on those matches, these guys rule. They lock up as Dunne takes things to the mat and starts working the arm. Bat works a slick escape, and he starts working the arm of Dunne. Dunne escapes, working ahead scissors, but Bate escapes and waves at him. Dunne quickly takes him down and lays the boots to Bate, while working the arm. Bate escapes, hits the dropkick and Dunne backs off. Dunne then takes Bate down, looks for pins, but Bate keeps bridging out. Dunne kicks him out of frustration, and runs to the ropes. Dunne gets a single leg, but Bate escapes as we’re at a stalemate. Nope, Bate lays him out with a straight punch. Dunne makes the ropes and lays Bate out with a forearm smash. They continue to work back and forth, Bate hits an uppercut off the ropes and they spill to the floor, and Bate fights back, stomping Dunne’s hands on the steps. Dunne then hits a suplex off of the steps and rolls back in the ring. Bate beats the count back in but walks right into slaps by Dunne. Dunne slaps him around and works a rear chinlock. Bate tries to fight back, but Dunne just jacks his jaw with a forearm strike. Dunne again attacks the fingers of Bate, who sells it well. Dunne grounds him again, just torturing the hand and arm. He gives no fucks. Dunne now stomps away at Bate, but Bate fires up and hits an XPLODER. Bate connects with running uppercuts, Bate counters a suplex and hits the running shooting star press for 2. The bridging belly to back suplex gets another 2. They trade strikes and kicks, Bate looks for Tyler driver but Dunne counters into a triangle. Bate powers up and pulls Dunne up and hits a powerbomb. Dunne keeps the arm locked, Bate powers up again, and stuns Dunne off of the ropes. Bate follows with the airplane spin, and then turns direction and more spinning. He then squats up and goes high speed spinning. They fall to the mat and Bate covers for 2. Dunne rolls to the apron, Bate goes after him and looks to suplex him back in and does. Bate covers but Dunne kicks out. Dunne fires up and kicks the shit out of Bate, but Bate returns fire and stomps out Dunne. But Dunne survives, hitting the bitter end for a great near fall! Dunne is so frustrated, questioning what he has to do to beat Bate. Dunne hits and enziguri, but Bate rebounds with a lariat, but Dunne rebounds with a lariat of his own! MY GOD LADS! They now fight from thier knees, going all Frye vs. Takiyama. Bate finally hits a HUGE right, but can’t follow up as that’s the hand that Dunne had been working over. To the apron they go, Bate hits the rolling kick and rolls Dunne back in. Bate up top but Dunne says not today motherfucker and kills him with a forearm strike! The sitout powerbomb by Dunne follows for 2! Too the floor they go, but Bate rebounds off the ropes with a lariat! The ref counts on Dunne, Bate then follows with a tope! Back in, TYLER DIVER but Dunne kicks out! My fucking word! Bate heads up top, looking to finish things and hits the spiral tap but Dunne kicks out again! They both work up top now, Dunne backflips out of the super German and hits the bitter end, finally putting Bate away. Champion Pete Dunne defeated Tyler Bate @ 22:55 via pin [****½] Fucking hell that was excellent. We all know that these two have amazing chemistry, but doing it three times in the same year is usually really hard, but 2017 we have had some excellent trilogies (Okada vs. Omega, Naito vs. Tanahashi, Ishii vs. Omega) and we can add Bate vs. Dunne to that mix. This started slowly, and did a great job of slowly and consistently building throughout the match, while also paying tribute and properly playing off of their previous two matches like all trilogies should. They had an absolutely tremendous homestretch, as they just kept upping the intensity, the drama and hitting the climax at just the right time. Add a late addition to the year-end match listing with this bad boy. These guys kick ass.

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

8.8

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

This was an absolutely awesome edition of NXT TV, with two good matches, advancing angles, setting up two matches for next week, and delivering a MOTY caliber main event on top of that. This is a must see show overall.